DOCSLIB.ORG

John Chisum — Cattle King of the Pecos

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
John Chisum — Cattle King of the Pecos John Chisum — Cattle King of the Pecos By Phyllis Eileen Banks Last updated on Friday, January 10, 2003 Original buildings at the South Springs Ranch Photo by Phyllis Eileen Banks Although Juan de Onate is credited with bringing the first cattle into New Mexico from old Mexico, it was John Chisum and men of his ilk who made the cattle industry an economic force in the 1860s. Chisum was a Texas bachelor in his early thirties. However, there were rumors, later proved to be true, that he had a love affair and two daughters by a mulatto slave girl. He had purchased her for $1400 from some emigrants bound for California. Jensie was an excellent housekeeper and cook, only fifteen and beautiful. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Chisum freed all his slaves, including her. He then put her and the girls in a home in Bonham, Texas and left funds for their needs. He blazed the historic Chisum Trail from the little town of Paris, Texas, where his cattle herd was first begun, across the desert of Texas then north to the Pecos Valley in southeastern New Mexico. Tales have varied about how many cattle were in the drive in 1867 when he took them to Fort Sumner. Some say 600, some say 900. Author Georgia B. Redfield in an article in The Cattleman about 1942, describes the trip: “Although it was early spring, it was as hot as any mid-summer day of the year 1867 when nine hundred head of gaunt beef cattle staggered over an unbroken trail, on the last lap of a three-day waterless drive...’They won’t ever make it to Sumner,’ said one of the cowboys...’We’ll make it,’ replied the dauntless Chisum with a grim tightening of the tired lines of his mouth and jaw, which in every crisis of his life characterized his refusal to accept defeat.” The campground and cattle rest established near the Rio Hondo and Rio Pecos, now the site of Roswell, provided much needed water. Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving were also cattlemen driving cattle to Fort Sumner. When Loving succumbed to a wound from a bow and arrow in 1868, Chisum and Goodnight formed a partnership. In the next five years Chisum earned enough capital to move permanently to New Mexico. He purchased South Spring Ranch, with its 40 acres, the South Spring and a large adobe house, three miles south of Roswell. He tore down the old adobe and built an adobe/frame house with four rooms on each side of an open hallway. Underneath the open hall there was an acequia. There were verandas on both the front and back of the house so he could sit in the shade at any hour of the day. He built a separate room at the back of the house for his cowpunchers to hold their dances so “they don’t beat up my Axminster carpets with their boots.” Described as a man born to the land and handsome, he was average height but strong and with a sunburned and weatherbeaten complexion. His hair was thick and brown, his eyes a blue gray, and he wore a mustache. He was known to be fair in his dealings with others, one who paid his debts and wasn’t involved in any violence. The first brand he used on his cattle was “the long rail," a straight horizontal line across the whole side of a cow. However, it was easily changed to other brands so he used a large “u” on the shoulder of the cows. But his “jingle bob” brand was the most famous in the west. It was a slit on the cow’s ear with one part of it standing upright and two-thirds of it bobbing. The Cattle King was said to have remarked, “Them derned ears won’t jingle but they sure will bob.” He grazed 80,000 head of cattle on a one-hundred mile stretch of public domain. As homesteaders began to arrive in Roswell to start small cattle operations using the public domain for grazing, these cattle became mixed in with the Chisum herds. This caused extra work at round-up time as well as opened the door for cattle rustling. Chisum was possessive of his turf, and there were hostilities. This conflict was one of the elements contributing to the Lincoln County Wars. John Chisum preferred to make his contacts directly for the purchase of beef for Fort Stanton rather than go through Lawrence G. Murphy, beef subcontractor for a Santa Fe government contractor. Murphy had virtually held a monopoly until 1877 when Chisum backed new residents Alexander A. McSween and John Tunstall. The three of them opened the county’s first official bank. McSween’s business partner Tunstall was killed in a brutal ambush by a sheriff’s posse. That was followed shortly by the killing of two of the men accused of killing Tunstall. A state of near anarchy now existed in the huge county of Lincoln. The battles continued until 1881. Chisum was never directly involved in them although he gave sanctuary and material support at his South Springs Ranch. Shortly thereafter Chisum came down with small pox. His men put him in a tent in the camp south of the Pecos, assigning men to nurse him day and night. A black cowboy, Frank Chisum, his friend, and almost considered a son, rode to Fort Stanton to bring him medical help. Frank stayed with Chisum until he was well, then came down with the disease himself but also survived. In 1883 a tumor began to grow on Chisum’s neck, causing him pain. He tried to remain optimistic but knew his father and grandfather had died from cancer. Finally in 1884 he decided to go to Kansas City for treatment but took only a driver with him. On July 24 surgeons removed the tumor. When he was told the operation was a success he started for home. In Las Vegas, New Mexico, he fell ill and was advised to go to Eureka Springs, Arkansas to a health spa for further care. He lived in a hotel there for several months. However, the tumor returned even larger. His brother James came to stay with him in December and on December 22, 1884 Chisum died. He was buried on Christmas Day at the family plot in Paris, Texas. Thus ends the career of one of the great men of the West. One hundred and fifteen years following his death, on December 15, 1999, the Chisum Trail was again in the limelight with the Last Great Cattle Drive of the Millennium moving as many as 500 head of cattle from Roswell to Lincoln. And the legend lives on through a statue of him on horseback in Roswell’s Pioneer Plaza. .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Thomas Catron, Samuel Axtell, and the Lincoln County War
    New Mexico Historical Review Volume 68 Number 2 Article 3 4-1-1993 An Excess of Law in Lincoln County: Thomas Catron, Samuel Axtell, and the Lincoln County War Joel K. Jacobsen Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/nmhr Recommended Citation Jacobsen, Joel K.. "An Excess of Law in Lincoln County: Thomas Catron, Samuel Axtell, and the Lincoln County War." New Mexico Historical Review 68, 2 (1993). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/nmhr/vol68/ iss2/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in New Mexico Historical Review by an authorized editor of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. An Excess of Law in Lincoln County: Thomas· Catron, Samuel Axtell, and the Lincoln County War JOEL K. JACOBSEN New Mexico's Lincoln County War of 1877-1878 has spawned endless retellings, from nineteenth-century dime novels to the movie Young Guns and including any number of books and articles, some more faithful to the facts than others. It lives in popular imagination as a series of violent encounters, from the assassination of Sheriff William Brady to the gunfight at Blazer's Mill. Through the dust and gunpowder smoke rides the image of Billy the Kid. But the Lincoln County War was also, to an underappreciated extent, a legal battle involving law­ yers, judges and juries, and the hyper-civilized rituals of the court­ room. Indeed, it might even be said that the cause of the Lincoln County War was not lawlessness but an excess of law, or at least an excess of tricky and occasionally dubious legal maneuvers.
    [Show full text]
  • Billy the Kid: More Than a Legend
    National Park Service White Sands U.S. Department of the Interior White Sands National Monument Billy the Kid: More than a Legend he history of the American Southwest is chock full of legends and stories that truly live up to the epithet of the TWild West. The embellishment of these stories has allowed for the development of numerous movies and books but the true facts of these accounts are more interesting than any tall tale. Yes, the West really was wild! after Tunstall. According to most doubt he and other renowned William Henry McCarthy, accounts, he was shot unarmed characters of the time came across otherwise known as Billy the which was against “the code of the largerst gypsum dunefield in Kid, is a perfect example of how the West.” After Tunstall’s murder, the world as they traveled. Who untamed the now tranquil towns Billy and the Regulators swore knows what evidence of their of New Mexico used to be. It vengeance on Jesse Evans and his passage these ever-shifting dunes was no secret that Billy had a crew. might be hiding. rough past. His mother died of tuberculosis while he was just a As a result of one of the many —Sandra Flickinger, Student-Intern young boy and he had a history of skirmishes, Sheriff William Brady working odd jobs in combination was killed, putting Billy in the hot with a few illegal activities. seat as a murderer and sending him on the run. After many daring The real beginning of Billy’s career escapes, the new sheriff, Pat as an infamous gunman, however, Garrett, was finally successful in began in 1878 after he met a young arresting Billy.
    [Show full text]
  • Ranching Catalogue 
    Catalogue Ten –Part Four THE RANCHING CATALOGUE VOLUME TWO D-G Dorothy Sloan – Rare Books box 4825 ◆ austin, texas 78765-4825 Dorothy Sloan-Rare Books, Inc. Box 4825, Austin, Texas 78765-4825 Phone: (512) 477-8442 Fax: (512) 477-8602 Email: [email protected] www.sloanrarebooks.com All items are guaranteed to be in the described condition, authentic, and of clear title, and may be returned within two weeks for any reason. Purchases are shipped at custom- er’s expense. New customers are asked to provide payment with order, or to supply appropriate references. Institutions may receive deferred billing upon request. Residents of Texas will be charged appropriate state sales tax. Texas dealers must have a tax certificate on file. Catalogue edited by Dorothy Sloan and Jasmine Star Catalogue preparation assisted by Christine Gilbert, Manola de la Madrid (of the Autry Museum of Western Heritage), Peter L. Oliver, Aaron Russell, Anthony V. Sloan, Jason Star, Skye Thomsen & many others Typesetting by Aaron Russell Offset lithography by David Holman at Wind River Press Letterpress cover and book design by Bradley Hutchinson at Digital Letterpress Photography by Peter Oliver and Third Eye Photography INTRODUCTION here is a general belief that trail driving of cattle over long distances to market had its Tstart in Texas of post-Civil War days, when Tejanos were long on longhorns and short on cash, except for the worthless Confederate article. Like so many well-entrenched, traditional as- sumptions, this one is unwarranted. J. Evetts Haley, in editing one of the extremely rare accounts of the cattle drives to Califor- nia which preceded the Texas-to-Kansas experiment by a decade and a half, slapped the blame for this misunderstanding squarely on the writings of Emerson Hough.
    [Show full text]
  • In the Shadow of Billy the Kid: Susan Mcsween and the Lincoln County War Author(S): Kathleen P
    In the Shadow of Billy the Kid: Susan McSween and the Lincoln County War Author(s): Kathleen P. Chamberlain Source: Montana: The Magazine of Western History, Vol. 55, No. 4 (Winter, 2005), pp. 36-53 Published by: Montana Historical Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4520742 . Accessed: 31/01/2014 13:20 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Montana Historical Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Montana: The Magazine of Western History. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 142.25.33.193 on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 13:20:15 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions In the Shadowof Billy the Kid SUSAN MCSWEEN AND THE LINCOLN COUNTY WAR by Kathleen P. Chamberlain S C.4 C-5 I t Ia;i - /.0 I _Lf Susan McSween survivedthe shootouts of the Lincoln CountyWar and createda fortunein its aftermath.Through her story,we can examinethe strugglefor economic control that gripped Gilded Age New Mexico and discoverhow women were forced to alter their behavior,make decisions, and measuresuccess againstthe cold realitiesof the period. This content downloaded from 142.25.33.193 on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 13:20:15 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions ,a- -P N1878 southeastern New Mexico declared war on itself.
    [Show full text]
  • Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War 1878
    Other Forms of Conflict in the West – Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War 1878 Lesson Objectives: Starter Questions: • To understand how the expansion of 1) We have many examples of how the the West caused other forms of expansion into the West caused conflict with tension between settlers, not just Plains Indians – can you list three examples conflict between white Americans and of conflict and what the cause was in each Plains Indians. case? • To explain the significance of the 2) Can you think of any other groups that may Lincoln County War in understanding have got into conflict with each other as other types of conflict. people expanded west and any reasons why? • To assess the significance of Billy the 3) Why was law and order such a problem in Kid and what his story tells us about new communities being established in the law and order. West? Why was it so hard to stop violence and crime? As homesteaders, hunters, miners and cattle ranchers flooded onto the Plains, they not only came into conflict with the Plains Indians who already lived there, but also with each other. This was a time of robberies, range wars and Indian wars in the wide open spaces of the West. Gradually, the forces of law and order caught up with the lawbreakers, while the US army defeated the Plains Indians. As homesteaders, hunters, miners and cattle ranchers flooded onto the Plains, they not only came into conflict with the Plains Indians who already lived there, but also with each other.
    [Show full text]
  • Land, Speculation, and Manipulation on the Pecos
    University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Great Plains Quarterly Great Plains Studies, Center for Summer 2008 Land, Speculation, and Manipulation on the Pecos Stephen Bogener West Texas A&M University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly Part of the Other International and Area Studies Commons Bogener, Stephen, "Land, Speculation, and Manipulation on the Pecos" (2008). Great Plains Quarterly. 1352. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/1352 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. LAND, SPECULATION, AND MANIPULATION ONTHEPECOS STEPHEN BOGENER The Pecos River of the nineteenth century, manipulation of federal land laws followed the unlike its faint twenty-first century shadow, removal of Native Americans, the displace­ was a formidable watercourse. The river ment of Mexican American communities, stretches some 755 miles, from the Sangre de and the departure of major players in the Cristo Mountains northeast of Santa Fe to its cattle industry of the American West. One eventual merger with the Rio Grande. Control of the most ambitious engineering and irriga­ over the public domain of southeastern New tion ventures in nineteenth-century North Mexico came from controlling access to the America developed here from a simple idea Pecos, its tributaries and springs. In the arid in the mind of lawman Pat Garrett, better environment of New Mexico's Pecos Valley, known for slaying William Bonney, a.k.a.
    [Show full text]
  • Westward Expansion 1763-1838, NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK Form 10-300 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT of the INTERIOR STATE: (Rev
    THEME: Westward Expansion 1763-1838, NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK Form 10-300 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR STATE: (Rev. 6-72) NATIONAL PARK SERVICE New Mexico COUN T Yr NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES Lincoln INVENTORY - NOMINATION FORM FOR NFS USE ONLY ENTRY DATE (Type all entries complete applicable sections) Ni^Sil^'':^":^ :;' ; •'' r -' ''•' '''^ •'•'*•• ' ....'... •• ; ---••• ._•-.,... C OMMON: Lincoln, New Mexico AND/OR HISTORIC: Lincoln Historic District fei:^_®eAT*0N STREET AND NUMBER: U.S. Highway 380 CITY OR TOWN: CONGREZSSIONAL DISTRICT: Lincoln Second STA TE CQDE COUNTY : CODE New Mexico 35 Line oln 27 |fi';;f^:ji>i,$Si^i€^t{pN •.: STATUS ACCESSIBLE CATEGORY OWNERSHIP (Check One) TO THE PUBLIC |S] District Q Building 1 1 Public Public Acquisition: 81 Occupied Yes: f-, , , . , S3 Restricted D Site fj Structure D Private Q In Process p>s] Unoccupied ""^ d r— i D *• i D Unrestricted rj Object S3 Botn CH Bein 9 Considere 1 _1 Preservation work — in progress ^sn NO PRESENT USE (Check One or More as Appropriate) [ | Agricultural | I Government | | Park [ | Transportation 1 1 Comments ^ Commercial 1 1 Industrial fcfl Private Residence HI Other fSoecifv) d Educational d Military Q Religious I | Entertainment ^1 Museum [ | Scientific R:ii>':: :->if|iittr fcj-p- t? •f5'P^ :-P Ji? FYP i* '(? T V ' ••:'-:' .,: .,: ... '•'-•.. :• •-•'..-•- x- •" x * •' ' • . ' • ..•"'•' ,. " • •' • -•'•'•,. • •-:.'••'• •..•*:' ;.yX->: . -- .•-.:•*•: • • •- . .•.;-,".•:.: - ' •'.'.-'.:-•:-,• •'•:• OWNER'S NAME: Mexico NewSTATE State of New Mexico, various private owners STREET AND NUMBER: State Capitol, Old Santa Fe Trail CITY OR TOWN: STA TE: CODF Santa Fe Npw Mexico 35 ^wsi^jf*^ . '. ,. /'• - .• ....•:.,. ..':;.. •- ;•'•:• Eft*:-;: ili&nrM .:»:*V.™ :i VT: . jL.C.Wtb, 1/C.dvKir: MW* : x ..: COURTHOUSE, REGISTRY OF DEEDS, ETC: Lincoln COUNTY: Lincoln County Courthouse STREET AND NUMBER: Cl TY OR TOWN: STA TE CODE Carrizozo N ew Mexico 35 praB^Pf|ll^i^^Wk'ti»:'ixi'stiN^':SuRVEys=.- ••' .
    [Show full text]
  • Lincoln County Postscript: Notes on Robert A
    New Mexico Historical Review Volume 50 Number 3 Article 3 7-1-1975 Lincoln County Postscript: Notes on Robert A. Widenmann by His Daughter, Elsie Widenman Bruce T. Ellis Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/nmhr Recommended Citation Ellis, Bruce T.. "Lincoln County Postscript: Notes on Robert A. Widenmann by His Daughter, Elsie Widenman." New Mexico Historical Review 50, 3 (2021). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/nmhr/vol50/ iss3/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in New Mexico Historical Review by an authorized editor of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]. 213 LINCOLN COUNTY POSTSCRIPT: NOTES ON ROBERT A. WIDENMANN BY HIS DAUGHTER, ELSIE WIDENMAN with comments by BRUCB T. ELLIS RUNNING through most of the published accounts of New Mexico's bloody "Lincoln County War" are implications of extra­ territorial intrigue-pointers to the beginnings of vague trails leading beyond the borders of Lincoln County to possible com­ mand posts in Santa Fe and even Washington. The trails are difficult to follow; material for their mapping is for the most part little more than partisan assertion, secondary inference, and un­ verified rumor. Unacceptable as hard evidence, its chary treatment by historians has brought the often repeated charge that the full story of the war has never been told. Another, although minor, obstacle to an agreed-upon final assess­ ment of the war has been uncertainty about the roles of some of its known participants.
    [Show full text]
  • A History of the Mescalero Apache Reservation, 1869-1881
    A history of the Mescalero Apache Reservation, 1869-1881 Item Type text; Thesis-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Mehren, Lawrence L. (Lawrence Lindsay), 1944- Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 06/10/2021 14:32:58 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/554055 See, >4Z- 2 fr,r- Loiu*ty\t+~ >MeV.r«cr coiU.c> e ■ A HISTORY OF THE MESCALERO APACHE RESERVATION, 1869-1881 by Lawrence Lindsay Mehren A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 1 9 6 9 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This thesis has been submitted in partial fulfillment of re­ quirements for an advanced degree at The University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from, this thesis are allowable wihout special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the copyright holder. APPROVAL BY THESIS DIRECTOR This thesis has been approved on the date shown below: Associate Professor of History COPYRIGHTED BY LAWRENCE LINDSAY MEHREN 1969 iii PREFACE This thesis was conceived of a short two years ago, when I became interested.in the historical problems surrounding the Indian and his attempt to adjust to an Anglo-Saxon culture.
    [Show full text]
  • The Kinney Gang in 1873, 25-Year Old John Kinney Mustered out of the U.S
    This is a short biography of outlaw John Kinney, submitted to SCHS by descendant Troy Kelly of Johnson City, NY. John W. Kinney was born in Hampshire, Massachusetts in 1847 (other sources say 1848 or 1853). He and his family moved to Iowas shortly after John was born. On April 13, 1867, Kinney enlisted in the U.S. Army at Chicago, Illinois. On April 13, 1873, at the rank of sergeant, Kinney was mustered out of the U.S. Army at Fort McPherson, Nebraska. Kinney chose not to stay around Nebraska, and he went south to New Mexico Territory. Kinney took up residence in Dona Ana County. He soon became a rustler and the leader of a gang of about thirty rustlers, killers, and thieves. By 1875, the John Kinney Gang was the most feared band of rustler in the territory. They rustled cattle, horses, and mules throughout New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and Mexico. However, the headquarters for the gang was around the towns of La Mesilla and Las Cruces, both of them located in Dona Ana County. Kinney himself was a very dangerous gunslinger. His apprentice in the gang was Jessie Evants. On New Year's Even in 1875, Kinney, Jessie Evans, and two other John Kinney Gang members name Jim McDaniels and Pony Diehl, got into a bar-room brawl in Las Cruces with some soldiers from nearby Fort Seldon [sic]. The soldiers beat the four rusterls in the fight, and the outlaws were tossed out of the establishment. Kinney himself was severely injured during the fight. Later that night, Kinney, Evans, McDaniels, and Diehl took to the street of Las Cruces and went in front of the saloon they had recently been tossed out of.
    [Show full text]
  • Ranch Women of the Old West
    Hereford Women Ranch Women of the Old West by Sandra Ostgaard Women certainly made very return to one’s hometown to find and the Jesse Evans Gang, Tunstall important contributions to a bride — or if the individual had hired individuals, including Billy America’s Western frontier. There a wife, to make arrangement to the Kid, Chavez y Chavez, Dick are some interesting stories about take her out West. This was the Brewer, Charlie Bowdre and the introduction of women in the beginning of adventure for many Doc Scurlock. The two factions West — particularly as cattlewomen a frontier woman. clashed over Tunstall’s death, with and wives of ranchers. These numerous people being killed women were not typical cowgirls. Susan McSween by both sides and culminating The frontier woman worked Susan McSween in the Battle of Lincoln, where hard in difficult settings and (Dec. 30, 1845- Susan was present. Her husband contributed in a big way to Jan. 3, 1931) was killed at the end of the civilizing the West. For the most was a prominent battle, despite being unarmed part, women married to ranchers cattlewoman of and attempting to surrender. were brought to the frontier after the 19th century. Susan struggled in the the male established himself. Once called the aftermath of the Lincoln County Conditions were rough in the “Cattle Queen of New Mexico,” War to make ends meet in the decade after the Civil War, making the widow of Alexander McSween, New Mexico Territory. She sought it difficult for men to provide who was a leading factor in the and received help from Tunstall’s suitable living conditions for Lincoln County War and was shot family in England.
    [Show full text]
  • 2016-04 Gazette
    A Chronicle of the Plum Creek Shooting Society Agarita Ranch April 2016 Lockhart, Texas John Chisum and the Lincoln County War John Chisum was born on his suffering from Indian raids and drought, grandfather’s plantation in Hardeman Chisum and other cattlemen in the Denton County, Tennessee in 1824. He moved with area moved their cattle west. Riding a mule, his family to Paris, Texas in 1837. In 1854, as was his preference, Chisum rode ahead of he first went into the cattle business in Denton County, adopting the Half Circle P brand. By 1860 Chisum was running 5,000 head of cattle and was considered a major cattleman in North Texas. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Chisum was exempted from service and placed in charge of several herds in his district. Early in 1862 he took a herd across Wisdom from Jake …………… 4 Arkansas to Find Delta Raider ……………….. 4 the Long Juan Here ………………….. 3 Confederate Match Photos …………………….. 9 forces at President’s Word ……………….. 2 Vicksburg, Sponsor Ads ………………………. 13 but thereafter the herd on their way to Coleman County. Photo from Jake …..……………. 4 exhibited little There they camped on the Concho River near interest in the its junction with the Colorado. Soon Chisum Southern and his partners had 18,000 head grazing cause. In the along the Colorado. fall of 1863, By the time you are ready this, about three weeks will President - Dragon Hill Dave remain before Battle of Plum David Donaldson Creek 2016. Regular shooters Austin, TX 512-626-8189 please remember that BPC [email protected] takes the place of our monthly Vice President - Joe Darter match in May.
    [Show full text]